Japan’s Prime Minister Rejects ‘Sanae Token,’ Saying She Never Approved the Crypto Project

TL;DR

• Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi denied approving or knowing about Sanae Token, saying the cryptocurrency used her name without authorization or awareness.
• The controversy involves public secretary Tsuyoshi Kinoshita, who communicated with operators linked to businessman Ken Matsui but said he believed the proposal concerned app points.
• The case tests Japan’s effort to promote Web3 and tokenization while strengthening safeguards against fraud, unauthorized issuance, implied political endorsements, and misleading crypto branding.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has denied approving or participating in the launch of “Sanae Token,” a cryptocurrency created using her name without her knowledge or consent in any form. Speaking in the lower house of Japan’s National Diet, Takaichi said she had not even known the token existed. The prime minister’s rejection draws a clear line between her public identity and the unauthorized crypto project. Yet the case is hardly routine, because the token’s reported connections extend beyond anonymous developers and into the orbit of an official working closely with Japan’s head of government.

Questions turn to a senior aide’s communications

The unusual link involves Tsuyoshi Kinoshita, Takaichi’s chief public secretary. The project was reportedly developed by people associated with businessman Ken Matsui, while Kinoshita acknowledged communicating with business operators connected to Matsui during the project’s development before the launch. The controversy now centers on what the secretary understood during those exchanges. According to his explanation, Kinoshita believed the proposal concerned points for an application, not an actual cryptocurrency. That distinction may sound simple, but it leaves unanswered how a token carrying the prime minister’s name advanced without its nature becoming unmistakably clear to everyone involved.

The dispute is especially awkward because Takaichi has generally supported Japan’s Web3 and blockchain development. Her government’s policy favors tokenization and other crypto-related initiatives, while also strengthening protections against fraud and unauthorized token issuance. Support for blockchain innovation does not amount to approval for a token using a political leader’s identity. The Sanae Token episode therefore exposes a difficult boundary for policymakers: encouraging digital-asset experimentation while preventing promoters from borrowing official names, implied endorsements, or political credibility to make speculative projects appear more legitimate than they actually are to potential buyers across the wider market.

For now, Takaichi’s statement settles one essential point: she says she never authorized the project and had no prior awareness of it. However, scrutiny is likely to remain focused on Kinoshita’s communications and whether the people behind the token benefited from perceived access to the prime minister’s office. The remaining issue is not whether Takaichi endorsed Sanae Token, but how the appearance of endorsement emerged at all. In a market where creating tokens requires little effort, political branding can travel faster than verification, leaving officials to deny associations only after public confusion has taken hold.

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